Archive for the ‘Al Ries’ Tag

“Building a business or building a brand? That’s the most important question in marketing.”

I’m thinking this pithy statement sums up all the confusion in our economy today. Through social media and the internet, because we’re truly now global citizens, we are transitioning to an economy that is based in brand rather than in business. The vast majority, though, have no idea what this means.

If you spend all your time online, as I pretty much do, you can’t miss the emphasis on authenticity and brand building. But in the brick-and-mortar world, huge gaps in understanding remain. Most business owners and workers simply don’t have the time to research, so the important strides discussed on the web pass them by.

When I attend local networking meetings, I know my talk mystifies those present. I tell them about virtual assistance and social media marketing, but they are skeptical. Business, for them, is an exercise in self-defense; they are held in terror of not making quotas, not making budgets; the shame of failure threatens their well-being constantly. Their souls are buried under mountains of paranoia.

Did we boomers cause the present money problems? Probably. We discovered a new personal freedom through our hippie days of the 60s, but neglected to transfer its meaning to business. While we became personally more open, very few applied the same thinking to business. Until now. Now, we find the intersection of commerce and personality to be the key to success, at least in terms of marketing. Now, at last, we are becoming aware that branding and self-awareness are more valuable, richer, and much more durable than business.

But the average business person, however pervasive these ideas may be online, has not yet come to this understanding. Part of the problem is that lifelong learning, an important aspect of brand awareness, is not part of the old business culture. To many, the thought of having to learn an entirely new system is abhorent. And of course, the concept that your life can be absolutely what you want it to be is still a suspicious one to these folk.

For me, the hard part is feeling the suffering. If you don’t experiment with the processes of branding, if you stay stuck in the old business concepts, you’re likely to be suffering and afraid. You have no idea how to progress in today’s economy. You are still caught up in suspicion and competition, and most likely every day is a trial.

There’s a whole lot of gentle prodding to do. Admittedly, this is a radical change for all of us. And through hard times, perhaps it’s extremely challenging to keep believing in your brand. But, as Ries points out, though it may at times test your loyalty, your brand will endure while your business will come and go.

It’s a long row to hoe, but I see working with small businesses on establishing brand through social media as a way to relieve a whole lot of suffering in the world, to bolster belief in the self, and to free up business people from the oppression of the old style so that they may at last be able to offer their very best.

PLEASE NOTE: This is the LAST POST of this blog on the WordPress site, and I’m off to live at my own URL from now on. Please visit me there!